It is human nature to put off doing a business grant application until the very last minute but this is one of the worst things you can do. You end up with a sloppy looking document that appears to have been done at the last minute. You might hinge this is stating the obvious but many people just dash it off and do not bother formatting, branding, spell checking or proof-reading the document. Many applications do not include page numbers or are not stapled together. You might think that this small stuff does not matter but the truth is that if your application looks like this you might be disqualified from the entire evaluation process for incompleteness. This happens because so many organizations get so many businesses begging for grants and loans that they will find any excuse to deny it so the number of applications can be whittled down to a reasonable number.
Things that can get your business rant proposal thrown into the slush pile are –
No name of the author or grant
Missing account or project numbers
Missing project title
Spelling mistakes
Missing a cover page
Missing page numbers
Missing requested number of copies
Are too long to read or do not follow word minimum requirements
Does not have enough words or appears incomplete
Is not printed in black ink
Has pages that are not stapled or bound together
Does not have a table of contents
Have dirty, ripped pages
The reason that a lack of detail is so important is because it also reflects a lack of organization. You must have minimal writing, design, language and organizational skills in order to qualify for a grant at all
In some cases you might be prescribed an order in which the application must be written or submitted. It is good that you give them the table of contents or guidelines that they want. If you don’t you will not look professional.
Another big sin is redundancy. Do not state the same information, need or benefit in the same fields again and again. That just makes it look like you are trying to fill space with words. Tailor every part of the application with the purpose of the application section for best results.
Make sure that your language also makes logical sense and be sure to connect with the reader. Do not assume that the reader will be able to make sense of pages and pages of statistics. Make sure you come to conclusion for them.
